Arrested Shopkeeper Calls For Protection

Arrested Shopkeeper Calls For Protection

MIDDLETOWN — C In the 11 months since he opened his Spanish-American grocery store in the North End of Main Street, Ramon Ortiz has endured two burglaries and caught five shoplifters.

But the 52-year-old shopkeeper ran into trouble of his own this weekend when police accused him of drawing a gun on a customer who became abusive after refusing to pay for a $1.29 bottle of ketchup.

Ortiz, of 25 Acacea Court, admits he said he would shoot 33-year-old Jeffrey Crumble of Worcester, Mass., but denies pulling a gun. And he said he is outraged about the way police treated him.

"I'm not that crazy. I'm not going to get in trouble over a bottle of ketchup," he said Monday as he waited on customers at the crowded bodega at the corner of Main and Grand streets.

Ortiz, who was charged with threatening and risk of injury to a minor, was released on a promise to appear Monday in Superior Court in Middletown.

He said Monday he did not understand how police could charge him when he believed he was defending his business.

"How can they do this to a businessman who's trying to make a living and do something for the city of Middletown? This I can't believe," said Ortiz, adding that he has carried a gun for 30 years and never displayed it.

"They kill people in Middletown, and [police] can't find the killers. They rob stores and [police] can't find the robbers. But if somebody says, `I am going to shoot you . . .' they arrest him." Capt. David Knapp, a spokesman for Middletown police, said Ortiz was charged because the arresting officer had probable cause to believe Ortiz had drawn the weapon to force Crumble out of the store.

Crumble's story was supported by children in the store with him, police said. Crumble also gave the investigating officer, Sgt. Paul Shilling, an accurate description of a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver, Knapp said.

Ortiz, a native of Puerto Rico, came to Connecticut at age 14 with his father, Leo, and they worked side-by-side in a Portland tobacco field, earning 60 cents an hour. After five years picking

to bacco, Ortiz moved to Middletown in 1958, where he worked at Marino's Bakery for 16 years before going to work at an automotive parts store. He and his wife, Pura, opened the grocery store last October.

Ortiz and police agree that Crumble first entered the store about 11 a.m. Saturday with the children, who ranged in age from 6 to 12. After talking to a clerk who spoke little English, Crumble began yelling obscenities. Ortiz called police, but the group left the store before officers arrived.

The man and the children returned to the store about 6 p.m. to buy a bottle of ketchup for a birthday party the children were attending. When Ortiz told him the price, the man shouted the price was too high, and accused Ortiz of trying to steal from the neighborhood.

Ortiz called police a second time and repeatedly told the man to get out of the store. The man refused and continued yelling obscenities until Ortiz, exasperated, said, "Get out of my store or I am going to shoot . . ." "Shoot me!" the man replied. "Go ahead, shoot me." When Shilling arrived, he arrested Ortiz -- not Crumble -- and confiscated the revolver, which Ortiz had borrowed from his son after the theft of his own gun from the store last month.

On Monday, Ortiz called Crumble a liar. He said police should do all they can to help small businesses such as his.

"If it keeps up the way it is, I'm not going to be here long," he said. "I need protection -- not to be arrested."